‘And not likely to be released for a long time,’ Lou added.
‘Or so I’d like to believe,’ Laurie said. ‘Anyway, I’m hoping that doing
the post on Franconi might provide me with some closure. I still have
nightmares occasionally.’
‘They sealed her in a pine coffin to abduct her from here,’ Lou said.
‘She was taken away in one of the mortuary vans.’
‘My god!’ Jack said to Laurie. ‘You never told me about that.’
‘I try not to think about it,’ Laurie said. Then without missing a beat
she added: ‘You guys wait out here.’
Laurie ducked into the mortuary office to get a copy of the list of
refrigerator compartments assigned to the cases that had come in the
previous night.
‘I can’t imagine getting closed in a coffin,’ Jack said. He shuddered.
Heights were his main phobia but tight, confining spaces came a close
second.
‘Nor can I,’ Lou agreed. ‘But she was able to recover remarkably. An
hour or so after being released she had the presence of mind to figure
out how to save us both. That was particularly humbling since I’d gone
there to save her.’
‘Jeez!’ Jack said with a shake of his head. ‘Up until this minute I
thought my getting handcuffed to a sink by a couple of killers who were
arguing over who was going to do me in was the worst-case scenario.’
Laurie came out of the office waving a sheet of paper. ‘Compartment one
eleven,’ she said. ‘And I was right. The body wasn’t X-rayed.’
Laurie took off like a power walker. Jack and Lou had to hustle to catch
up with her. She made a beeline for the proper compartment. Once there
she slipped the autopsy folder under her left arm and used her right
hand to release the latch. In one, smooth, practiced motion, she swung
open the door and slid out the tray on its ball bearings.
Laurie’s brow furrowed.
‘That’s odd!’ she remarked. The tray was empty save for a few blood
stains and hardened secretions.
Laurie slid the tray back in and closed the door. She rechecked the
number. There’d been no mistake. It was compartment one eleven.
After looking at the list once again to make certain she’d not misread
the number, she reopened the compartment door, shielded her eyes from
the glare of the overhead lights, and peered into the depths of the dark
interior. There was no doubt: the compartment did not contain Carlo
Franconi’s remains.
‘What the hell!’ Laurie complained. She slammed the insulated door. And
just to be sure there wasn’t some stupid logistic error, she opened up
all the neighboring compartments one after the other. In those which
contained bodies, she checked the names and accession numbers. But it
soon became obvious: Carlo Franconi was not among them.
‘I don’t believe this,’ Laurie said with angry frustration. ‘The damn
body is gone!’
A smile had appeared on Jack’s face from the moment compartment one
eleven had proved to be empty. Now, facing Laurie’s exasperated frown,
he couldn’t help himself. He laughed heartily. Unfortunately his
laughter further piqued Laurie.
‘I’m sorry,’ Jack managed. ‘My intuition told me this case was going to
give you a bureaucratic headache. I was wrong. It’s going to give the
bureaucracy a headache.’
CHAPTER 2
———
MARCH 4, 1997
1:30 P.M.
COGO, EQUATORIAL GUINEA
KEVIN Marshall put down his pencil and looked out the window above his
desk. In contrast to his inner turmoil, the weather outside was rather
pleasant with the first patches of blue sky that Kevin had seen for
months. The dry season had finally begun. Of course it wasn’t dry; it
just didn’t rain nearly as much as during the wet season. The downside
was that the more consistent sun made the temperature soar to ovenlike
levels. At the moment it hovered at one hundred and fifteen degrees in
the shade.
Kevin had not worked well that morning nor had he slept during the
night. The anxiety he’d felt the previous day at the commencement of the
surgery had not abated. In fact, it had gotten worse, especially after
the unexpected call from the GenSys CEO, Taylor Cabot. Kevin had only